Abstract:

A heterogeneous environment having applications and application enablers
operating on application servers organized as a cluster is managed. The
application servers are managed by a cluster management application. A
system management application permits access to computing performance
data provided by an operating system and reported to the system
management application. Performance data of the applications and
application enablers is collected from an application agent through the
application servers. Topology information regarding the application
servers is collected via the cluster management application. The
performance data and the topology information are retrieved and sent to
the system management application. Access to the performance data via the
system management application is permitted. The system management
application links to the computing performance data using the topology
information.

Claims:

1. A method for managing a heterogeneous environment of applications and
application enablers, comprising:collecting, from an application agent on
a physical system hosting a cluster management application and through a
plurality of application servers operating on the physical system hosting
the cluster management application, performance data of the applications
and the application enablers,the applications and the application
enablers operating on the application servers organized as a cluster, the
application servers being managed by the cluster management application,
where a system management application permits access to computing
performance data provided by an operating system of the physical system,
collected by an operating system agent installed on the physical system,
and reported to the system management application;collecting, through the
cluster management application, topology information linking the
application servers with the physical system on which the application
servers operate;retrieving on the physical system hosting the cluster
management application the performance data of the applications and the
application enablers, and the topology information;sending the
performance data and the topology information as retrieved to the system
management application;permitting access, via the system management
application, to the performance data of the applications and the
application enablers that have been sent; and,using the topology
information, linking the system management application to the computing
performance data provided by the operating system of the physical system
on which the applications and application enablers of the cluster
operate.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, using the topology
information, linking the computing performance data provided by the
operating system of the physical system to the performance data of the
applications and the application enablers that operate on the system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising permitting access to the
performance data of the applications and the application enablers linked
to the computing performance data provided by the operating system of the
physical system on which the applications and application enablers
operate, via a system management user interface that also allows access
to the computing performance data provided by the operating system of the
physical system hosting the application servers.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the system management user interface is
a graphical interface to a system management console, and the method
further comprises:navigating on the system management console from the
computing performance data provided by the operating system of the
physical system to the performance data of the applications and the
application enablers that operate on the system.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:navigating on a system
management console from the performance data of the applications and
application enablers that operate on the system to the computing
performance data provided by the operating system of the physical system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the performance data and the
topology information is performed by an application agent, the
application agent being a simple network management protocol (SNMP)
agent, the application agent storing the performance data in an SNMP
management information base (MIB).

7. The method of claim 6, wherein retrieving the performance data is
performed by a monitoring agent utilizing SNMP to retrieve the
performance data from the MIB.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance data of the applications
and application enablers of the cluster are key performance indicators
(KPI's) of the applications and application enablers.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:processing and archiving the
performance data of the applications and the application enablers, and
the computing performance data;providing access to the performance data
of the applications and the applicable enablers, and to the computing
performance data, through a user interface.

10. A system comprising:a plurality of application servers organized as a
cluster;applications and application enablers operable on the application
servers;a cluster management application to manage the application
servers;a system management application to allow access to computing
performance data provided by an operating system collected by an
operating system agent and reported to the system management application;
and,a collection application to collect, via the application servers,
performance data of the applications and the application enablers, to
collect, via the cluster management application, topology information
regarding the application servers, and to send the performance data and
the topology information to the system management application,wherein the
system management application is adapted to allow access to the
performance data of the applications and the application enablers and,
using the topology information that has been sent, to allow linking to
the computing performance data provided by the operating system.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the system management application is
further adapted to allow, using the topology information, linking the
computing performance data provided by the operating system to the
performance data of the applications and the application enablers.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the system management application
further is adapted to allow access to the performance data of the
applications and the application enablers linked to the computing
performance data provided by the operating system of the physical system
on which the applications and application enablers operate from a system
management user interface that also allows access to the computing
performance data provided by the operating system of the physical system
hosting the application servers.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the collection application comprises
an application agent that is a simple network management protocol (SNMP)
agent, the application agent to store the performance data in an SNMP
management information base (MIB).

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the performance data of the
applications and application enablers of the cluster comprise key
performance indicators (KPI's) of the applications and application
enablers.

15. A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon
for managing a heterogeneous environment of applications and application
enablers operating on a plurality of application servers organized as a
cluster, the method comprising:collecting, from an application agent on a
physical system hosting a cluster management application and through a
plurality of application servers operating on the physical system hosting
the cluster management application, performance data of the applications
and the application enablers,the applications and the application
enablers operating on the application servers organized as a cluster, the
application servers being managed by the cluster management application,
where a system management application permits access to computing
performance data provided by an operating system of the physical system,
collected by an operating system agent installed on the physical system,
and reported to the system management application;collecting, through the
cluster management application, topology information linking the
application servers with the physical system on which the application
servers operate;retrieving on the physical system hosting the cluster
management application the performance data of the applications and the
application enablers, and the topology information;sending the
performance data and the topology information as retrieved to the system
management application;permitting, via the system management application,
access to the performance data of the applications and the application
enablers that have been sent and; and,using the topology information,
linking the system management interface to the computing performance data
provided by the operating system of the physical system on which the
applications and application enablers of the cluster operate.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, the method further
comprising, using the topology information, linking the computing
performance data provided by the operating system of the physical system
to the performance data of the applications and the application enablers
that operate on the system.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, the method further
comprising permitting access to the performance data of the applications
and the application enablers linked to the computing performance data
provided by the operating system of the physical system on which the
applications and application enablers operate, via a system management
user interface that also allows access to the computing performance data
provided by the operating system of the physical system hosting the
application servers.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the system
management user interface is a graphical interface to a system management
console, and the method further comprises:permitting navigation on the
system management console from the computing performance data provided by
the operating system of the physical system to the performance data of
the applications and the application enablers that operate on the system.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, the method further
comprising:permitting navigation on a system management console from the
performance data of the applications and application enablers that
operate on the system to the computing performance data provided by the
operating system of the physical system.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the performance data
of the applications and application enablers of the cluster are key
performance indicators (KPI's) of the applications and application
enablers.

[0002]The present invention generally relates to system management. More
particularly, the present invention provides an integrated system
management for operating systems, hardware equipment, and performance
indicators originating from business applications running within a
clustered environment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003]System management products allow a company to efficiently manage its
information technology (IT) infrastructure while controlling its expenses
and improving its service level. As examples, the Tivoli® server
products available from International Business Machines Corp., of Armonk,
N.Y., as well as network and device management products, provide an
end-to-end view of an IT infrastructure for resource allocation,
monitoring, and provisioning, and also can provide problem prevention and
resolution capabilities. Monitoring products manage the health and
availability of IT infrastructure in an end-to-end manner, including
operating systems, databases, and servers within the infrastructure,
across distributed and host environments.

[0004]However, such monitoring products do not provide for monitoring the
activity of business applications and business application enablers.
Application enablers integrate software applications with document and
process management process. Hundreds of applications, such as enterprise
resource planning (ERP) applications, customer relationship management
(CRM) applications, as well as accounting and other transactional
systems, have been "application enabled." In this respect, they allow
users to index and retrieve documents without leaving the applications
themselves.

[0005]Because application enablers operate as an extension of a familiar
interface, the disruption to an employee's routines is minimal. The
custom integration provided by an application enabler matches the user's
requirements and are flexible enough to change and evolve alongside the
business. Business activity monitoring in real time allows activities
such as leadership development, engagement, service, and satisfaction to
be measured. The information collected from applications and application
enablers include various metrics that are known as key performance
indicators (KPI's).

[0006]However, business activity monitoring is typically not correlated
with the monitoring of the availability and performance of IT systems. As
such, IT administrators cannot proactively remediate business activity
issues when they result from availability and performance problems of
their underlying IT systems. Key business performance indicators may
deteriorate because of problems with the operating system or hardware of
the application servers on which the business applications or application
enablers are running. Furthermore, when the application servers that are
used to host applications and application enablers are structured in
complex clustered topologies using middleware software layers for
integration, it is difficult at best to correlate KPI's to relevant
operating system and hardware performance data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007]The present invention relate to the efficient monitoring of
heterogeneous applications. A method of one embodiment of the invention
is for managing a heterogeneous environment having applications and
application enablers operating on application servers organized as a
cluster. The application servers are managed by a cluster management
application. A system management application permits access to computing
performance data provided by an operating system of a physical system,
collected by an operating system agent installed on the physical system,
and reported to the system management application.

[0008]The method collects performance data of the applications and the
application enablers. This performance data is collected from an
application agent on the physical system hosting the cluster management
application and through the application servers operating on the physical
system hosting the cluster management application. The method collects,
through the cluster management application, topology information linking
the application servers with the physical system on which the application
servers operate. The method retrieves on the physical system hosting the
cluster management application the performance data of the applications
and the application enablers, and the topology information.

[0009]The method further sends the performance data and the topology
information as retrieved to the system management application. The method
then permits access, via the system management application, to the
performance data of the applications and the application enablers that
have been sent. The method, using the topology information, also links
the system management application to the computing performance data
provided by the operating system of the physical system on which the
applications and application enablers of the cluster operate.

[0010]A system of an embodiment of the invention includes application
servers organized as a cluster, applications and application enablers
operable on the application servers, a cluster management application to
manage the application servers, a system management application, and a
collection application. The system management application allows access
to computing performance data provided by an operating system collected
by an operating system agent and reported to the system management
application.

[0011]The collection application collects, via the application servers,
performance data of the applications and the application enablers. The
collection application further collects, via the cluster management
application, topology information regarding the application servers. The
collection application then sends the performance data and the topology
information to the system management application. The system management
application is adapted to allow access to the performance data of the
applications and the application enablers and, using the topology
information that has been sent, to allow linking to the computing
performance data provided by the operating system.

[0012]A computer-readable medium of one embodiment of the invention has a
computer program stored thereon. The computer-readable medium may be a
recordable data storage medium, or another type of tangible
computer-readable medium. Upon execution, the computer program stored on
the medium performs a method. The method is for managing a heterogeneous
environment having applications and application enablers operating on
application servers organized as a cluster. The application servers are
managed by a cluster management application. A system management
application permits access to computing performance data provided by an
operating system of a physical system, collected by an operating system
agent installed on the physical system, and reported to the system
management application.

[0013]The method collects performance data of the applications and the
application enablers. This performance data is collected from an
application agent on the physical system hosting the cluster management
application and through the application servers operating on the physical
system hosting the cluster management application. The method collects,
through the cluster management application, topology information linking
the application servers with the physical system on which the application
servers operate. The method retrieves on the physical system hosting the
cluster management application the performance data of the applications
and the application enablers, and the topology information.

[0014]The method further sends the performance data and the topology
information as retrieved to the system management application. The method
then permits access, via the system management application, to the
performance data of the applications and the application enablers that
have been sent. The method, using the topology information, also links
the system management application to the computing performance data
provided by the operating system of the physical system on which the
applications and application enablers of the cluster operate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015]The drawings referenced herein form a part of the specification.
Features shown in the drawing are meant as illustrative of only some
embodiments of the invention, and not of all embodiments of the
invention, unless otherwise explicitly indicated, and implications to the
contrary are otherwise not to be made.

[0016]FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a system management implementation
for monitoring distributed systems operating application servers within
the prior art.

[0017]FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the monitoring of business data
information of a cluster of application servers according to prior art.

[0018]FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an implementation of integrated
monitoring of distributed systems and of heterogeneous applications,
according to a method of one embodiment of the invention.

[0019]FIG. 4 is a diagram providing an example of a simple network
management protocol (SNMP) management information base (MIB) containing
key performance indicator (KPI) variables for the applications of a
cluster, according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0020]FIGS. 5A and 5B are diagrams depicting an example of a sequence of
screenshots as displayed on a system management administrator console,
according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021]In the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of
the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a
part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific
exemplary embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These
embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in
the art to practice the invention. Other embodiments may be utilized, and
logical, mechanical, and other changes may be made without departing from
the spirit or scope of the present invention. The following detailed
description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the
scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.

[0022]It is noted that prior art monitoring products do not provide for
monitoring the activity of business applications and business application
enablers. Application enablers integrate software applications with
document and process management process. Hundreds of applications, such
as enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, customer relationship
management (CRM) applications, as well as accounting and other
transactional systems, have been "application enabled." In this respect,
they allow users to index and retrieve documents without leaving the
applications themselves.

[0023]Because application enablers operate as an extension of a familiar
interface, the disruption to an employee's routines is minimal. The
custom integration provided by an application enabler matches the user's
requirements and are flexible enough to change and evolve alongside the
business. Business activity monitoring in real time allows activities
such as leadership development, engagement, service, and satisfaction to
be measured. The information collected from applications and application
enablers include various metrics that are known as key performance
indicators (KPI's).

[0024]However, business activity monitoring is typically not correlated
with the monitoring of the availability and performance of IT systems. As
such, IT administrators cannot proactively remediate business activity
issues when they result from availability and performance problems of
their underlying IT systems. Key business performance indicators may
deteriorate because of problems with the operating system or hardware of
the application servers on which the business applications or application
enablers are running. Furthermore, when the application servers that are
used to host applications and application enablers are structured in
complex clustered topologies using middleware software layers for
integration, it is difficult at best to correlate KPI's to relevant
operating system and hardware performance data.

[0025]Therefore, FIG. 1 illustrates a system management implementation for
monitoring distributed systems operating application servers in
accordance with the prior art. One example of such a system managing
product is the Tivoli® server monitoring product version 6.2
available from International Business Machines Corp., of Armonk, N.Y. The
three systems, physical system A (145), physical system B (155), and
physical system C (165), are in the example respectively operating the
Application server 1, the Application server 2, and the Application
server 3, which handle client requests to web servers through the
Internet. The operating system on each physical system (145, 155, 165)
generates performance data which are monitored by a system management
mechanism having a centralized implementation (100) and a distributed
implementation (140, 150, 160). The systems A, B, and C are physical
systems in that they each include hardware, such as processors, memory,
storage devices, and other types of hardware.

[0026]In the distributed implementation, one operating system (OS) agent
(140 on 145, 150 on 155 and 160 on 165) operates on each system. The
agents collect operating system performance data for each system. The
information collected by the OS agents concern all computing resources,
such as input/output (I/O) operations, as well as central processor unit
(CPU) and storage parameters. Each agent is configured to report these
performance data to a remote server (170) that is part of the centralized
implementation (100) of the system management mechanism. For large
installations, the remote server concentrates data from a group of agents
for an instance for each enterprise location. The connections from
distributed agents to the centralized system management may be
transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) connections.

[0027]The remote server (170) that interfaces the OS Agents transfers the
performance data to a central server (180) which processes the data and
archives it in a data base. This data is accessible from a system
administrator console (195) through a user interface server (190). The
system administrator performs online monitoring of computing resources
displayed on the screen of the console and can react to a degraded
situation by changing the configuration of these resources. The system
administrator also can generate reports regarding this operating system
information. When the system administrator uses the console for real-time
monitoring, the performance information is displayed on the screen, and
the administrator may also use the information processed and stored in
the database for other system management operations, such as posteriori
problem determination, system load balancing, system configuration plans,
and so on.

[0028]FIG. 2 illustrates monitoring of business data information of a
cluster of application servers in accordance with the prior art. In FIG.
2 the same distributed systems of FIG. 1 are used to operate application
servers, which themselves operate IP multimedia system (IMS) application
enablers. Examples of IMS application enablers include a Presence®
server (available from International Business Machines Corp.), an
extended markup language data management server (XDMS), and a
telecommunication web services server (TWSS). Application enablers
integrate IMS applications distributed on other application servers. An
additional layer, an IMS connector, is present to connect all the IMS
applications.

[0029]According to standard definitions, a service plan is that which the
IMS standard defines as the place where the application servers hosting
IMS applications are run is thus built into each system. Additionally, an
intermediate middleware is provided for server clustering, such as the
WebSphere® application server network deployment middleware available
from International Business Machines Corp., and allows horizontal and
vertical clustering capabilities. A cluster is a virtual entity which can
be managed through a deployment manager application, such as on system C
(165). A deployment manager provides a single, central point of
administrative control for the cluster members.

[0030]The application server 3 running on the same system (165) as the
deployment manager has the capability of retrieving the key performance
indicator (KPI) information, which includes performance data from the IMS
applications running in the cluster. The KPI information for IMS
applications includes network performance data, such as IMS application
process IP multimedia data. For instance, session initiation protocol
(SIP) may be collected for Internet control flow and data flow
monitoring.

[0031]The system (165) and the application server 3 host an administrative
console (210) for which a viewer application is implemented as, for
instance, a servlet program on application server 3. The IMS
administrator can monitor the performance of the IMS applications of the
cluster by viewing all the KPI's from all the clustered IMS applications
controlled by the deployment manager. FIG. 2 shows that the deployment
management as it is not capable of reciprocal information with the system
management mechanism described in FIG. 1, however.

[0032]As such, FIG. 3 illustrates an implementation for integrated
monitoring of distributed systems and of heterogeneous applications,
according to the method of an embodiment of the invention. In FIG. 3, the
system management provided via FIG. 2 is presumed to have been
implemented for management of the systems hosting the application
servers. With the implementation of a new subsystem, specifically a
collection application described in relation to FIG. 3, it is therefore
possible to efficiently retrieve performance data of IMS applications and
enablers, running in clusters, and the performance information of the
systems hosting them. It is also possible to provide the capability to
correlate such information and data providing a consistent user interface
(UI) view and report navigation, via an efficient deployment of a minimal
set of probes and monitors. The implementation includes an application
agent (300) and a monitoring agent (320), where the application agent and
the monitoring agent may be considered as part of the collection
application.

[0033]A single application agent (300) per cluster (145) is installed on
the deployment manager system (165). The application agent can be a
simple network management protocol (SNMP) agent which collects the KPI
values for all the applications of all the application servers of the
cluster. The data is collected from the application server running on the
same system, system C (165), on which the deployment manager runs. The
KPI's relate to all the application servers (and to hosted enterprise
applications if there are any) that belong to the same cluster. The SNMP
protocol that can be used is described in Request for Comment (RFC) 1441
for SNMP version 2, available from the Internet Engineering Task Force at
the Internet web site www.ietf.org. A management information base (MIB)
table (310), for which the generic structure is provided by the SNMP
protocol, contains variables adapted to the KPI's of the IMS applications
and the application enablers. The MIB is maintained by the SNMP
application agent in one embodiment of the invention.

[0034]FIG. 4 depicts an example of a SNMP MIB containing KPI variables for
the applications of the cluster, according to an embodiment of the
invention. The hierarchical structure of the MIB may be that imposed by
the RFC 1441 that has been referenced above. The KPI's related to the
Internet are under the Internet link (400). Under the private enterprise
(410) link, the KPI's are attached to the name of the company here
"Networkcompany" (420) that provides the IMS services. Under the
Applications link (430), the identity of the WebSphere® application
server application handling the clustered servers is attached. The data
is saved over tables (450, 460, 470, 480).

[0035]More particularly, in one embodiment, for IMS applications, SIP
traffic information is stored. An example of such SIP traffic information
is as follows. wsControlTable content (450) indicates that the SIP
counters described in the next link (460) have to be retrieved, via the
following statement

.1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.11.1.1.8000= .*SipContainerModule$

In wsCounterTable (460) the counters to be retrieved including four
counters. A first counter, in wsCounterTable, is the average number of
messages handled by the container calculated over configurable period,
such as

.1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.12.1.1.8000.137=Active SIP Session

A second counter, in wsCounterTable, is the size of the invoke queue in
the WebSphere® application server, such as

.1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.12.1.1.8000.136=Queue Size

A third counter, in wsCounterTable, is the average number of new SIP
application sessions created in the container and calculated over
configurable period, such as

.1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.12.1.1.8000.135=New SIP Application sessions)

A fourth counter, in wsCounterTable, is the average amount of time, in
milliseconds, that passes from the time the message is sent to the
container to the time the container sends a response, such as

.1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.12.1.1.8000.134=Response Time

[0036]In this embodiment the CollectionTable (450) contains indices to
retrieve data and to identity the server they belong to, since the
wsDataTable contains the actual information. One example for an active
SIP session is:

[0037]A monitoring agent (320) per cluster operates on the system (165) on
which the deployment manager is also being executed. In one embodiment,
the monitoring agent collects, by performing SNMP get operations, the
per-cluster KPI MIB data from the application agent. The monitoring agent
can also be installed on any remote system but having it on same the
system (165) where the deployment manager is executing avoids an increase
of network traffic. The monitoring agent retrieves the MIB information
containing the KPI's and sends the collected information to the remote
server (170) of the centralized system management implementation (100).

[0038]The application agent also collects topology information describing
relationships between clusters/nodes/servers/hostnames and
servers/enterprise applications. The topology information is collected by
the application agent (300) from the deployment manager through script
commands. Thus, the application agent (300) retrieves not only the KPI's
from application server 1, application server 2, and application server
3, but also the topology information. Such topology information specifies
that server 1 runs on system A, server 2 runs on system B, and server 3
runs on system C, for instance. The topology information is stored on
system C independently from the MIB or it can be stored in a separate MIB
table. Collection of topology information is typically an expensive
operation, and therefore may be performed by the application agent at the
request of the monitoring agent only if a new server/enterprise is
detected by the monitoring agent in the MIB entry.

[0039]In one embodiment, the monitoring agents (320) are modified to
interface with one another and also to receive topology information and
KPI's. In a method of one embodiment of the invention, the remote server
(170) is able to receive performance information from the OS agents (140,
150, 160) and the information from the monitoring agents (320). The
information received is transferred to the server (180), which processes
the data received from the agents. The system management server
application is updated to process the new information and, by using the
topology information, to link to the information from the OS agents and
to the information from the monitoring agents. Any new information is
also archived in the database. The graphical user interface (GUI) server
(190) is modified to provide new interfaces to the user; specifically,
new reports and graphics are prepared, including KPI information
correlated to operating system information that may already be handled
with system management applications.

[0040]FIGS. 5A and 5B depict one example of navigation as displayed on a
system management administrator console, according to an embodiment of
the invention. FIG. 5A depicts the first screenshot (500) in the sequence
of screenshots displaying KPI views that may be desired by the system
administrator on his or her centralized management console (195). The
screenshot of FIG. 5A shows a logical structure tree (30) of the
components that are monitored by the system management. Under the
monitoring agent component, one component is displayed as "lab224111,"
which represents one service plane member of the cluster. This entity
provides KPI's when the system management administrator is interested
looking at the KPI's.

[0041]When the administrator selects the server KPI's (e.g., SRV_KPI's)
(535), the table (540) in the right upper side of the screenshot is
displayed. This table shows the KPI related to the servers of the
cluster. The system management administrator may then select the row in
the table corresponding to "lab224111". The title of the screenshot
becomes become "SRV_KPI--lab224111--SysAdmin" (520). The host name in the
cluster for this component is "lab224111.BDX.it.nc.com" (545), and
operates, as indicated in FIG. 5A, on server 1.

[0042]Two examples of KPI's shown in FIG. 5A (just for illustration) are
"Active SIP Section" and "New Active SIP Section." These performance
indicators are related to the IMS applications for generating this
session initiation protocol (SIP) information. The KPI's for this service
plane are also illustrated with a graph (547) in the lower right part of
FIG. 5A. The system management administrator may request the metrics of
the operating system of the corresponding system, such as CPU
utilization, or virtual machine (VM) utilization, since such data may
explain the degraded KPI for the service plane operating of the
corresponding system. In response to the system management administrator
selecting the corresponding component (545), the application can link to
the metrics of the operating system of the corresponding system.

[0043]By leveraging the topology information retrieved from the monitoring
agent (320), it is possible to generate the links between the two
reports/views of respective KPI and OS performance data, and navigate
from one report/view to another report/view without requiring any manual
configuration on the part of the administrator. In response to the
administrator selecting in FIG. 5A the server name in the cluster (e.g.,
host name "lab224111.BDXlab.it.nc.com"), the system displays the
screenshot of FIG. 5B that shows the metrics view for system A. This is a
result of the system management application using the topology
information reported by the monitoring agent that indicates that server 1
is operating on system A.

[0044]Thus, FIG. 5B illustrates the second screenshot (510) in the
sequence of screenshots displaying OS performance data views that can be
viewed by the system administrator on the centralized management console
(195). FIG. 5B includes the same tree illustrating the structure of
logical components (550) as FIG. 5A, and which is managed from the
console. By selecting "System Information" (555), the administrator may
choose among the metrics provided by the operating system of the system
of server 1. In FIG. 5B, however, the administrator has chosen virtual
memory statistics information, such that a corresponding screenshot title
is displayed (560). The table (570) displayed in the lower part of the
screenshot shows virtual memory metrics. A problem in the swap or use of
a memory cache may thus be the core cause of the problem with the SIP
protocol previously identified by the KPI's of the IMS applications. The
same information is displayed as a graph (580) in the upper right part of
FIG. 5B.

[0045]It is thus possible to navigate between operating system performance
information and the KPI's from a unique console for system management.
Furthermore, only one application agent and one monitoring agent per
cluster are necessary. Embodiments of the invention also provide for
other advantages. For instance, application server clustering middleware
software, such as an IMS connector, running on top of an operating system
may be managed and monitored. Multiple physical systems can be spanned by
using a single applicant agent on these different physical systems. As
such, just one application agent is needed to manage all the cluster
elements, and thus to manage different middleware applications running on
different physical systems. A single application agent can support just a
subset of operating systems, particularly those belonging to a given
cluster.

[0046]It is noted that, although specific embodiments have been
illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated by those of
ordinary skill in the art that any arrangement calculated to achieve the
same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This
application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of
embodiments of the present invention. For example, while embodiments of
the invention have been described in relation to IMS applications, other
embodiments can be implemented in accordance with other types of
applications, such as applications developed in the Java programming
language and within the Java 2 Enterprise Environment (J2EE) platform.
Therefore, it is manifestly intended that this invention be limited only
by the claims and equivalents thereof.